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Ghana volunteer launches village library project

British volunteer, Catherine Hughes took part in our Community Housing Project in the Akuapem Hills region of Ghana earlier this year. During her time helping to build new classrooms for the local school she also became inspired to help build a community library for the village of Kwamoso.

Catherine tells us:

"The majority of children in our area went to school but they still lacked many resources and are mainly taught by rote with little time for young imaginations to take flight. Most of the children had no access to books at all and yet they were fascinated by them and whenever a volunteer sat outside to read, even something as simple as a guidebook we would immediately be surrounded by eager onlookers all poring over the pictures and attempting to read a few lines aloud.

As the classrooms we were building neared completion I felt I still wanted to give something more in return for all that Ghana had given to me. So when the Reverend (my host father and a local community leader) told me of their plans to build a community library I knew I had found my next project. At the moment I am back home in the UK running a fundraising campaign to try and raise the money to build the library and collect books to stock it. Already the foundations have been dug and concreted, but there is still a long way to go."

Catherine is now back in the UK continuing to fundraise for the library project. She plans to return to Ghana this summer to see how work is progressing, take over some books for the library and re-visit her Ghanaian friends and family.